If he in fact said that, it's absolutely unacceptable. It exhibits very poor judgment and we will take appropriate action.

As Jones writes in his post, he called Sousa and confronted him.

He actually admitted saying it. He said it was just an off the wall comment and wasn't meant to be racist.

This is a common reaction to people being called out for racist remarks or behavior — saying something overtly and obviously racist “wasn't meant to be racist.”

It's such a ubiquitous response that it's become clear these racist attitudes, and their firm protection in our culture/justice system, are so engrained that the culprits are instantly in denial over how easily they threw out racist remarks.

After all, at this point people must know saying something like this bears a significant risk for them if the remarks ever get online.

And that's setting aside the fact that saying something like that to CHILDREN is pretty traumatizing.

But the thing is, these thoughts are braided so tightly into the culture in parts of this country that the social and professional risks aren't even considered by many.

As Jones writes in his post,

I believe he's sorry but he's only sorry because he's in trouble.

This incident comes after a sharp rise in hate crimes in the days since the election, and point to a troubling trend of violence and bigotry in this country.

As CNN reports, the Southern Poverty Law Center says there have been 300 cases “of hateful harassment or intimidation” since Donald Trump won the presidency.

'They've been everywhere -- in schools, in places of business like Wal-Mart, on the street,' SPLC President Richard Cohen said.